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Spatial predictability of juvenile fish species richness and abundance in a coral reef environment

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Abstract

Juvenile reef fish communities represent an essential component of coral reef ecosystems in the current focus of fish population dynamics and coral reef resilience. Juvenile fish survival depends on habitat characteristics and is, following settlement, the first determinant of the number of individuals within adult populations. The goal of this study was to provide methods for mapping juvenile fish species richness and abundance into spatial domains suitable for micro and meso-scale analysis and management decisions. Generalized Linear Models predicting juvenile fish species richness and abundance were developed according to spatial and temporal environmental variables measured from 10 m up to 10 km in the southwest lagoon of New Caledonia. The statistical model was further spatially generalized using a 1.5-m resolution, independently created, remotely sensed, habitat map. This procedure revealed that : (1) spatial factors at 10 to 100-m scale explained up to 71% of variability in juvenile species richness, (2) a small improvement (75%) was gained when a combination of environmental variables at different spatial and temporal scales was used and (3) the coupling of remotely sensed data, geographical information system tools and point-based ecological data showed that the highest species richness and abundance were predicted along a narrow margin overlapping the coral reef flat and adjacent seagrass beds. Spatially explicit models of species distribution may be relevant for the management of reef communities when strong relationships exist between faunistic and environmental variables and when models are built at appropriate scales.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by grants from IRD, from Ministère de l’Outre-Mer and from the Programme d’Evaluation des Ressources Marines de la Zone Economique Exclusive de Nouvelle-Calédonie (ZoNéCo). We are very grateful to Gérard Mou-Tham for his invaluable field assistance. Thanks to Mr Andrew Harris for his help in editing the text. We also wish to thank Sean Connolly for his advice on the methods used to assess spatial and temporal autocorrelation and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and detailed suggestions.

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  1. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 128, BP A5, 98848, Nouméa cedex, New Caledonia

    C. Mellin, S. Andréfouët & D. Ponton

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  1. C. Mellin
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  2. S. Andréfouët
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Correspondence to C. Mellin.

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Communicated by Ecology Editor P.J. Mumby.

Appendix

Appendix

Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Fish species observed as juvenile during underwater visual census. Smax: maximum species length (in cm). Families are ordered according to Nelson (1984). For authorities see Randall (2005)
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Table 4 Fish species observed as juvenile during underwater visual census. Smax: maximum species length (in cm). Families are ordered according to Nelson (1984). For authorities see Randall (2005)
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Mellin, C., Andréfouët, S. & Ponton, D. Spatial predictability of juvenile fish species richness and abundance in a coral reef environment. Coral Reefs 26, 895–907 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-007-0281-3

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